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#1
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Best Pre-Amp for Around $400 or less
I use both a Fostex RP-8 digital multitracker and direct record
(electric guitar) into my computer. I will use for vocals and guitar (electric and acoustic). Thanks. |
#2
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Best Pre-Amp for Around $400 or less
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#3
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Best Pre-Amp for Around $400 or less
Mon11 wrote:
I use both a Fostex RP-8 digital multitracker and direct record (electric guitar) into my computer. I will use for vocals and guitar (electric and acoustic). Thanks. It's hard to know what you mean by "best," and there's no general agreement about what this means even in the higher price categories. To some folks it is PERFECTLY OBVIOUS that a preamp should keep its hands off the sound (just amplify its inputs) and to other folks it's PERFECTLY OBVIOUS that a preamp should sound warm, phat, groovy, detailed--should give the sound "character," whether the original pickup had any such character to begin with or not. Of course sonic neutrality is a relative thing--it exists only when you don't hear anything wrong (yet). But there are outright absurdities in the "colorist" point of view. When you think about it, there can't be a processor that constantly improves the sound of any signal you send through it--or else running a signal through the box an unlimited number of times in series would keep making the signal better and better ad infinitum. And that never really happens. So logically, a "colored" processor is only appropriate for some signals and not others. Thus you need a way to turn the effect down, or off altogether, or else you need to keep switching between different units for different signals (which some people do). As you can guess, I'm in the "neutralist" camp. I mention this because you have to take a person's viewpoint into account when you consider their advice (or at least that'd be my advice, from my viewpoint ...). So: One two-channel preamp in your price range that seems like a good value overall is the M Audio DMP3. It has particularly good input headroom on its microphone inputs--a rare quality in low-cost preamps. With some reservations about the way levels are supposed to be set, and the resulting noise performance of the preamp (I think the instruction manual may be too conservative but I want to recheck this), a somewhat less neutral single-channel preamp that also has switchable compression and EQ is the JoeMeek VC3Q. It's also very ... green, as you'll see. Both of these units are readily available used on eBay as well as new from a wide variety of retailers. And they both have decent implementations of the 48 Volt phantom powering system, so you can use them with most of the better condenser microphones. |
#4
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Best Pre-Amp for Around $400 or less
If you do a Google search you'll find all kinds of recommendations,
however you might consider a Mackie 1202 mixer (using the inserts as direct outs). I'd guess you use a guitar processor of some sort and not direct in, otherwise you'll need a DI between the guitar and line in to match impedance. Mon11 wrote: I use both a Fostex RP-8 digital multitracker and direct record (electric guitar) into my computer. I will use for vocals and guitar (electric and acoustic). Thanks. |
#5
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Best Pre-Amp for Around $400 or less
I haven't heard one yet, but RME's new QuadMic is probably worth an
audition http://www.rme-audio.de/english/micpreamps/quadmic.htm |
#6
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Best Pre-Amp for Around $400 or less
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